Essays on trans, intersex, cis and other persons and topics from a trans perspective.......All human life is here.

This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1400 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing.)

There is a detailedIndexarranged by vocation, doctor, activist group etc.

In addition to this most articles have one or more labels at the bottom. Click one to go to similar persons. There is a full list of labels at the bottom of the page. There is also a search box at the top left. Enjoy exploring!

Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, Columbia University and The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health launching detailed study of trans in US.

Dr Catherine Syengo Mutisya is a consultant psychiatrist in Nairobi who has 2 trans clients, one of whom has had surgery.

Dr Douglas Ousterhout's home, otherwise known as the Mrs Doubtfire's House, 2650 Steiner St, San Francisco, currently worth $3,400,000, was subjected to an arson attack by Tyqwon Eugenen Welch, who was dissatisfied by his work, and wanted her $45,000 refunded.

Clinics:

CAMH, Toronto, reviewed trans youth program after outcry. The external review reported in December that the Clinic for children
and youth was “out of touch, engaging in serious ethical lapses and
utilizing practices that verged on reparative therapy”. The
clinic
was closed, and Kenneth Zucker is no longer with CAMH.

Legal issues:

Bobbie Pearson, London, Ontario, suing Ontario Health Insurance Plan for reimbursement of $20,000 it cost for transgender surgery that she had in Pennsylvania, but without the approval of the CAMH Gender Clinic.

Jakob Rumble, Minnesota, treated rudely when admitted to hospital with inflamed female organs. First extensive federal court analysis of Section 1557 of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The provision prohibits discrimination by health care providers and is the first federal civil rights law barring sex discrimination in health care. Rumble is suing.

Michaela Raab, 40, Nuremburg, suing doctors at University Hospital Erlangen, who 20 years ago put her on female hormones and removed her clitoris/penis without telling her that she had 46 XY chromosomes. She has had health problems since and is asking for €250,000 in damages and a monthly pension of €1,600.

Legal

Amiee Stephens, Detroit area funeral director fired in 2013, case continues with support of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Audrey Mbuga and four other Kenyans are suing to compel the state to register their names on ID cards.

Angela Dawson, Vancouver, awarded $15,000 after police officers misgendered her and she was not allowed to dilate.

Christine Kitzler, 48, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, defeated an attempt by her parents just before surgery. They claimed that she was mentally unsound in that she had a childhood learning disability and bouts of depression. However the judge ruled that Christine knew what she doing, and allowed the operation to continue.

Dana Zzyym, represented by Lamda Legal, suing US State Department because denied passport in that could not accurately choose either male of female on the application form.

Mexican refugee claimant in US, Edin Carey Avendano-Hernandez, who suffered years of sexual and physical abuse, won a ruling that cannot be deported to Mexico despite a felony conviction. "Country conditions evidence shows that police specifically target the transgender community for extortion and sexual favors and that Mexico suffers from an epidemic of unsolved violent crimes against transgender persons," Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote for the 9th Circuit panel.

Mr & Mrs Crawford v. Medical University of South Carolina, Greenville Health System. Doctors performed unnecessary sex assignment surgery on their son when he was 16 months old. He was born with both male and female reproductive organs, but “there was no medical necessity to remove any of his genital tissue,” his adoptive parents said in their lawsuit. Doctors should have let M.C. eventually choose a gender for himself, they contend.

Lawyers for Gavin Grim who is challenging being barred from boy's restrooms at his school, asked for judge to be removed after he repeatedly referred to plaintiff's 'mental disorder'.

JK wished to amend the birth certificates of her two children to contain her post-transition name rather than her male name, and to say 'parent' rather than 'father'. The High Court of Justice ruled against this request.

K Prithika Yashin applied to be a police sub-inspector in Tamil Nadu, but was rejected because third gender. She sued and a court in Chennai ruled in her favour. Tamil Nadu police already have 3 trans constables.

Kate Lynn Blatt, Pennsylvania, sued for discrimination after losing her job in 2008, and thereby is testing the Americans with Disabilities Act which explicitly excludes “immoral” conditions including “transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, or other sexual behavior disorders”.

Kay Browning, 24, Devon, sued after not allowed to use men's toilets, has reached out-of-court settlement.

Monica Jones, arrested 2013 for accepting a ride from an undercover cop and thereby charged with prostitution, has had all charges dismissed, but the Arizona law, that gives police license to arrest people for engaging in lawful activity, including talking to passersby, without evidence that the person actually planned to do sex work, still stands.

Nikki Araguz: Texas Appeals Court re-validated her marriage to her deceased husband, and sent it back to the judge who originally voided their marriage.

Kael
McKenzie, Winnipeg, of indigenous ancestry, is now a provincial court judge.

Tristan Broussard, 21, Lake Charles, Louisiana, filed sex-discrimination lawsuit after forced to leave job. A company executive found out he was listed on his driver's license as female. The executive demanded he dress and act like a woman, something he refused to do.

Vasudevan Ramoo’s application to be recognised as a female by the National Registration Department (NRD)’s director-general was rejected by a High Court judge.

A Buenos Aires Judge Victor Trionfetti upheld a claim for damages initiated by a trans woman, denouncing the institutional violence suffered in her life over 60 years. He ordered the Government of the City of Buenos Aires pay monthly the equivalent of a vital and minimum wage, 4,716 pesos, for violating her constitutional and essential rights.

Costa Rica's Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal by a woman who sough coverage for her surgery from the public health system.

US Department of Justice addressed the transgender exclusion written into the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), urging the court to ignore the exclusion in order to avoid a constitutional problem.

Helen Doe, Croydon, employed by Metropolitan Police Uniform Services, who battered her brother on the head with an iron bar while sleep-walking, cleared of attempted murder.

Lee Bodsworth, Sudbury, Ontario, charged with sexual assault on a minor, agreed to a lessor charge of assault. The facts were not disclosed in court. Bodsworth got to a suspended sentence and 18 months probation.

May Peleg (1984 – 2015) left ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, later committed suicide, left will that to be cremated, family opposed this as per Jewish custom. Israeli Supreme Court ruled for will of the deceased.

Blake Brockington (1996 - 2015) homecoming king of East Mecklenburg High School 2014, recently at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, committed suicide.

Leelah Acorn (1997 – 2014) raised by conservative Christian family in Ohio. Buried under her male name. Resulting petitions etc led to US President Obama pledging to work towards banning conversion therapy.

Laura Vermont (1997 – 2015) São Paulo, in a fight with another trans woman, when military police arrived, and she was shot dead.

Michael (2002 -2015) Araraquara, São Paulo state, abandoned by mother at age 2, taken from grandfather who put the boy to work, ran away from shelter and became a trans prostitute at age 12. Died of 15 stab wounds and broken fingers.

Cold Cases:

Lake County, Florida Sheriff's office issued sketch of unknown 1988 murder victim only now discovered to be trans by DNA analysis.

Kathy Foster, 24 in 1990 when she was murdered in Ontario, Los Angeles. DNA evidence may now convict her killer.

Brandy Martell, 37 in 2012, when killed in San Francisco. Police have identified killer who was himself killed later that year.

179 in 2010
221 in 2011
265 in 2012
238 in 2013 (which is slightly less bad than 2012)
226 in 2014 (again slightly less bad)
271 in 2015

Of course most countries did not supply data. In particular, the totals for Africa (see below) are surprisingly low.

In 2015, again, most of the murders were in the Americas: Brazil (118), Mexico (34), USA (27), Colombia (15).

Over the seven years that TransRespect has reported, “the highest absolute numbers have been found in countries with strong trans movements and trans or LGBT organizations that do a professional monitoring: Brazil (770), Mexico (217), Colombia (98), Venezuela (90) and Honduras (79) in Central and South America, the USA (129) in North America, Turkey (39) and Italy (32) in Europe, and India (53), the Philippines (37) and Pakistan (34) in Asia.”

“The relative numbers show even more worrisome results for some countries with smaller population sizes. Honduras, for instance, has a rate of 9.56 reported trans killings per million inhabitants, for Guyana the rate is 5.00, while for Brazil the rate is 3.84, for Mexico the rate is 1.77, and for the USA the rate is 0.40.”

“In the last 7 ½ years:

1,507 killings of trans people have been reported in Central and South America, which account for 78 % of the globally reported murders of trans people since January 2008. In this region, there has been the strongest increase in reports and with 23 countries Central and South America is the best documented region.174 killings of trans people have been reported in Asia in 16 countries;134 killings of trans people have been reported in North America;104 killings of trans people have been reported in Europe in 15 countries;9 killings of trans people have been reported in Africa in 4 countries;5 killings of trans people have been reported in Oceania in 4 countries.”

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About Zagria

I have a social science degree. I spent several years in the 70s doing Gay Lib counselling, and moved on to organizing trans groups. I was rejected by the Clarke Institute (now CAMH) in the mid 1980s, probably because I do not match either of their stereotypes, but was accepted by Russel Reid on our first meeting in late 1987, and had surgery from James Dalrymple some months later. I have mainly worked as an IT consultant. I have been with the same husband for 45 years.